Keele Monument

By 1853 the Utes had reason to be angry: settlers were spreading onto their land and had shut down the slave trade Wakara's band depended on. The break came that July. A settler killed a Ute man during a quarrel in Springville; when the Utes asked for a single life in return, as their law required, the settlers refused. The next day they killed Alexander Keele, a guard here at Payson, and the Walker War was on. It was a bitter, scattered fight, with atrocities on both sides. This monument remembers the guard whose death marked its start.

What the plaque says

IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER KEELE PAYSON PIONEER KILLED ON GUARD DUTY NEAR HERE JULY 18, 1853 BY AN INDIAN FEIGNING FRIENDSHIP OPENING OF THE WALKER WAR

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Payson Lakes — 9.4 mi
  Three alpine lakes in the pines, twelve miles up Payson Canyon
• Thistle Landslide — 13 mi
  The ruins of a town destroyed by a massive landslide in 1983
• Nebo Loop Summit — 13 mi
  The byway's 9,300-foot high point, with Utah Valley spread out below
• Mount Nebo — 15 mi
  At 11,928 feet, the highest and southernmost peak in the Wasatch Range

More markers nearby

• Payson's Pioneer Industries — steps away
• Payson City Hall — steps away
• Our Pioneers — 0.5 mi
• The Walker War — 0.6 mi